4/29/2005 @ 3:09PM

Europe Uniting Against Schmidt's Google Print Project

Culture vulture? In The Library Of Babel Argentinean erudite Jorge Luis Borges proposed the idea of a boundless athenaeum, where man could find any book at will.
Google
announced a library-indexing project last year (see: “”), but the search giant’s Borgesian aspirations seem to have got a few backs up in Europe, which is rallying to an alternative. France’s decision to create its online Babel of European literature received critical backing from Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain this week. European media report that a letter signed by leaders of those countries has been mailed to European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso asking for help in funding the effort. And there’s possibly more than a soupcon of anti-American feeling in there somewhere: France’s National Library President Jean-Noel Jeanneney has described Google Print as “the confirmation of the risk of crushing American domination in the definition of how future generations conceive the world”. Google shouldn’t be surprised–France is famous for implementing laws to keep foreign words out of its vocabulary. The sign to Google Chief Executive
Eric E.
Schmidt
Eric E. Schmidt
from Europe seems to be clear: When it comes to our literature, you can keep your hands off.